JAMUNA BARUAH (1919-2005)

Jamuna Baruah was an actor. She was born Jamuna Gupta, the fourth of the six daughters of Puran Gupta, near Agra, but came to live in Calcutta. She became involved in films, doing a small role in Mohabbat Ki Kasauti (1934). The director of this film was Pramathesh Barua, brother of Nihar Barua (q.v.). Their acquaintance quickly bnecame romance and they married, although Barua had been married twice before. She had her first major role in her husband’s famous Devdas in 1936 playing Parvati or Paro to his Devdas. She went on to make a number of movies in Assamese, Bengali and Hindi, notably Grihadaha (1936), Maya (1936), Adhikar (1939), Uttarayan (1941), Shesh Uttar (1942), Chander Kalanka (1944). All of these were directed by Barua, but she also did a number of films without him, notably Debar (1943) and Nilanguriya (1943). She stopped acting after Barua died in 1950. Her three sons by Barua were all minors at the time and the Gauripur estate refused to grant them their share of the property. She went to court and fought for her children’s rights, eventually being allowed to keep the house with its vast lands.